


I Never Planned on You

by fabulously_frenzied



Series: ML Oneshots [17]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Canon Divergence, F/M, Fluff, Marichat, Nothing big, Oneshot, Pining, Songfic, basically I just mixed around the order of a few episodes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-08
Updated: 2019-10-08
Packaged: 2020-11-27 20:38:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,157
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20954567
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fabulously_frenzied/pseuds/fabulously_frenzied
Summary: After she helped him take down Evillistrator, Chat Noir makes a well-visit to one Marinette Dupain-Cheng.





	I Never Planned on You

**Author's Note:**

> [I Never Planned on You](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6cQkZLtUJQ) from the Broadway rendition of the musical _Newsies_. You can watch it on Amazon Prime, and now on Disney+!
> 
> Yes, as mentioned in the tags, I have messed around with the timeline.  
For reference: for the purposes of this fic, the order is Dislocœur → Glaciator → Evillistrator. I know that in canon, Evillistrator does not happen so late in the series. Roll with me here.

"Well, hello again, _Prrrrrrr_incess!"

He sticks the landing on her balcony and she sighs the most exaggerated sigh he's ever seen, shutting her sketchbook as she does so.

"Oh. _You,"_ Marinette sneers, but it's clear to him that there's no malice to her expression. "What are you doing here?"

"I just wanted to check on my favorite civilian!"

"I'm your favorite now, am I? Do you do this with everyone who's targeted by an akuma? I'm sure you and Chloé must be best pals by now."

"I'll hazard a guess that, at this point, Miss Bourgeois can handle herself. Today must have been stressful for you, though, having to act the damsel in distress."

She scoffs at him. "What, you think I can't take care of myself?"

"I would never imply such a horrendous thing!" He feigns offense, and she rolls her eyes, leaning forward. "After all, not everyone is so clever and cunning as to be able to assist the great Chat Noir in defeating an akuma!"

"Only you could turn a compliment about someone else into a compliment about yourself, you stupid cat."

"Me-_owch,_ Princess! And here I was, with only your best interest at heart!" 

She rolls her eyes again, standing up to walk over to the balcony railing, making a big show of looking over the Parisian skyline. "Somewhere out there, someone cares."

"Yeah, but the view is better up from up here," he shoots back without missing a beat, firmly holding her gaze. There's a pause before she blinks, sighs a sigh to rival the one from earlier, and flops back into her chair.

"Well. You've checked on me. Now, please go away. I'm working." The shortness of her voice would actually hurt him if he didn't know she's joking. Mostly, anyway.

"Working?" he asks, curious as his namesake. "On what?"

"Some designs. Inspiration never lasts long, and I was acting upon it until a _certain someone_ showed up." She elbows him once he gets close enough to her in trying to peer over her shoulder at the sketchbook. He knows a good design when he sees one, and this one page alone is full of them. His eyes widen at her sketches, and his brain short-circuits to _wow._

"A smart girl, eh?" he croons, bending down to her ear despite the lingering threat of her elbow. "I like a smart girl." He pretends to list on his fingers. "Beautiful, smart, independent—" She all but smacks his hands away, trying in vain to suppress a snort. "Okay, okay! I'll let you get back to your _inspiration,"_ his shoulders reaching his ears (the human ones, not the cat ones) as he shrugs, "though if you ever need a model or a muse, I'm your cat!"

She snorts again. _"Goodnight,_ Kitty." He shoots her a two-finger salute before vaulting off the balcony, heading home.  
  


* * *

  
He lands inside his room, dropping the transformation and shutting his window while he ignores Plagg's teasing. He'll never admit to the kwami that he does genuinely enjoy visiting Marinette as his alter ego, and he definitely didn't visit tonight just to "check up" on her. He sighs, though he doesn't know what for. He turns around from the window and stares at the wall above his desk, plastered in Ladybug paraphernalia. His face droops, thinking about all his failed attempts at wooing his partner.

The rooftop picnic she never showed up to, even though she'd told him she wouldn't come.

_ I got no use for moonlight..._

The Valentine's Day poem he tossed out in the classroom at school, and the cryptic, anonymous response he got for it.

_...or sappy poetry..._

She'd been honest with him, just as he'd been honest with her, admitting to liking someone else. He still doesn't want to let go of the idea that maybe, just maybe, _one day_ they'd end up together, but deep down there's a voice telling him he can't just wish that into existence. He'd told Plagg her friendship was "the best gift of all," but does he really believe that if he can't take his mind off her? Maybe he really has been acting the lovesick fool this whole time, and he was getting in his own way too much to see it.

_Love at first sight's for suckers..._

If he could spend the rest of his days making her laugh that beautiful laugh (if one day she'd finally laugh at his puns), he'd drop everything else in a heartbeat. He thinks back to that "well-visit." At least Marinette could appreciate his humor, even if she acted like she didn't. She was playful in a way that Ladybug wasn't. When he thinks about it, so much of what he's always loved about Ladybug shows up just as strong in Marinette, too. He'd only met the two of them a day apart, and he wonders if he'd met Marinette first...

_...at least, it used to be._

No, that's silly. His heart belonged to Ladybug, and he met her first, and that's just the way things are. But if she was being truthful to him that night, and he's never known her to lie, and she really is in love with someone else, what's the point of moping around picturing a future that very well may never happen?

_Look, girls are nice, once or twice..._

But with Marinette, everything is so much easier. He can play and joke around and be himself around her, and she plays and jokes along with him. Despite how flustered she always acts around Adrien (which he _still_ can't figure out), Marinette has always been the one of the two strongest and most genuine people he knows, not to mention extremely talented and creative. Man, he thinks, Marinette would make a great Ladybug. No one can replace the original, he knows, but if it came down to it...

_...till I find someone new..._

"Change targets," Kagami had told him. He'd tried to do just that on his date with her at the ice rink, but he'd spent the entire time watching Marinette skate with Luka with a jealousy he couldn't explain or even deny, if he was being honest with himself. He hasn't had any luck with his love life so far, but Marinette's never seemed to need luck. It's like she made her own luck, actually. In fact, she'd given her own hand-made lucky charm to him. Unconsciously he walks over to his desk, pulling the charm out of a drawer to inspect it. Out of the corner of his eye, he spots his calendar, and notices that a date about a week and a half from now has been vehemently circled, with "Marinette's birthday!!" written inside. He closes his hand around the charm, thinking of the luck she gave to him that day, and decides resolutely to give her some of his own homemade luck.

_No, I never planned on someone like you._

**Author's Note:**

> I really can't get over how similar the two of them are to Jack Kelly and Katherine. Jack and Katherine's interactions in the show make for PERFECT Marichat prompts.


End file.
